


The Long Walk Home

by moveshakedrop17



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F, US Women's Soccer National Team
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-11
Updated: 2020-08-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:09:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25842601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moveshakedrop17/pseuds/moveshakedrop17
Summary: Lieutenant Tobin Heath is a highly decorated naval aviator, who is deemed by many as a fighter pilot ace. However, she had to leave her newfound success and return back to her hometown of Hillsboro, Massachusetts due to a sudden, pressing matter, which inevitably forces her to revisit her painful childhood memories, those that only a handful amount of people know about.Accompanied by her best friends Kelley O'Hara, a Navy Lieutenant, and Alex Morgan, a professional soccer player for the LA Angels FC, as well as her ex-girlfriend, Christen Press, Lieutenant Heath began her journey that will take her to her own past, one that she was still afraid to dig up.How will she cope with the new situation in a place that she vowed to never revisit again in her life? Will she still be able to return back to be the person her peers glorified or will she let her traumatic past catch up to her?
Relationships: Alex Morgan/Kelley O'Hara, Alyssa Naeher/Becky Sauerbrunn, Ashlyn Harris/Ali Krieger, Carli Lloyd/Hope Solo, Kelley O'Hara/Christen Press, Lindsey Horan/Emily Sonnett, Tobin Heath/Alex Morgan, Tobin Heath/Christen Press, Tobin Heath/Kelley O'Hara
Comments: 11
Kudos: 52





	The Long Walk Home

**Author's Note:**

> I know that I have another work that's still in its development stages, but I've been having a writer's block with that story, so I decided to write about something that's been lingering in my mind for some time. This can touch several sensitive subjects such as abuse, drinking, and abandonment, so if you aren't up for it, you are more than welcome to not read those parts (I'll put some warning before those parts). I hope you'll like the story and I will update this as soon as possible. Happy reading. 😃 😃

Lieutenant Tobin Powell Heath of the US Navy’s Strike Fighter Squadron 87, who was still dressed in her navy-issued t-shirt and running shorts, fished her house’s keys from her right pocket as she walked from the house’s gates to its main entrance. The tall, upright-statured, and muscular woman had just finished her late night run, one that she religiously did every day for at least half an hour for the past ten years. After locking the main entrance from the inside and placing the house’s keys atop the living room’s coffee table, the brunette-coloured hair and tan-skinned lieutenant headed towards the kitchen, poured herself a cup of water, and gulped them all down in quick succession. A few glasses of water later, the young lieutenant had finally quenched her thirst and decided to cool off before hitting the cold shower. Whilst gently wiping the sweats from all over her face, Lieutenant Heath grabbed her phone, which was placed atop the living room’s coffee table, and checked her call logs and messages, not wanting to miss any important calls or texts, especially those from her commanding officer.

Scrolling down through the messaging app, the young lieutenant noticed several texts coming from her two best friends, Lieutenants Kelley Maureen O’Hara and Ashlyn Michelle Harris of the US Navy’s Strike Fighter Squadron 87, confirming the details of their surfing vacation for the weekend. However, before she even managed to read the details that her best friends had sent over, the young lieutenant’s eyesight was directed to a single text coming from an unknown number that said, ‘Call me as soon as you have received this message.’

The tan-skinned lieutenant was baffled by the text message as she vividly remembered that she had never given her personal phone number, which the anonymous person contacted her by, to anyone else besides her best friends, commanding officer, and her family members. Curious as to whom might have sent that message, Lieutenant Heath immediately dialled the number of the sole person that she extremely trust and know that could provide her with the answers to the questions roaming inside her brain, First Lieutenant Emily Ann Sonnett. First Lieutenant Sonnett is a US Marine Corps officer stationed to assist the Strike Fighter Squadron 87 as a Tech Specialist Officer.

After a couple of rings, the call finally went through and the blonde first lieutenant instantly queried, “Ma’am, how can I be in assistance of at this late hour?” after involuntarily letting out a yawn, prompting the tan-skinned lieutenant to check her watch’s time and realise that it was already 11.00 p.m..

“Hey, kiddo. Sorry for disturbing your sleep, but I need your help. Can you track down a number for me, please?” the naval lieutenant requested in an apologetic tone before hearing shuffles and groans from the other end of the line, presumably the latter coming from the First Lieutenant Sonnett’s girlfriend.

About a minute afterwards, the marine corps officer finally asked again, “What’s the number, ma’am?”

“646-018-9237,” Lieutenant Heath replied shortly and the two officers waited for the marine corps officer’s computer to finish its search through the national database.

After a ‘ding’ sound was heard from the computer, First Lieutenant Sonnett instantaneously relayed the information that she had just procured, “The number is registered to a lawyer named Christen Annemarie Press, ma’am. The call came from…” 

Following First Lieutenant Sonnett’s mention of the cell number’s owner’s name, the brunette naval aviator’s mind abruptly went blank and her senses seemingly went dull, resulting in her inability to hear the rest of the details reported by the blonde first lieutenant. The tan-skinned naval aviator finally broke away from her trance after the younger officer repeatedly called the former’s name, prompting Lieutenant Heath to merely answer with a ‘Huh?’ and ‘What did you just say again?’

Hearing Lieutenant Heath’s response caused First Lieutenant Sonnett to heave a dejected sigh before carefully questioning, “Who is this lawyer, ma’am? How is she connected to you and why do you seem as if you’re out of it after I told you the caller’s ID?”

Hoping that the blonde first lieutenant would not dig the matter anymore, the tan-skinned naval aviator answered in finality, “It’s a complicated and long story, one that I will tell you when I’m ready, kiddo, but for now, can you please do me a favour? Delete the search and forget the fact that you’ve done this personal favour for me. Please don’t try to conduct a further research on her on your own time and also, please don’t tell a single soul on what you’d just done for me, including Kell and Ash. Do you understand?”

First Lieutenant Sonnett let out another defeated sigh, knowing that she should not coerce the naval aviator to divulge anything at that moment, before uttering, “Yes, ma’am. Now, is there anything else that I can do to help you?”

“Nope, I don’t think so, kiddo. Just go back to sleep right now and tell Lindsey I am sorry for disturbing her sleep, alright? Good night, kiddo,” Lieutenant Heath stated in a contrite tone before cutting the call off.

After the line went dead, the entire house became eerily silent and the tan-skinned lieutenant was back inside her deep thoughts, trying to find a reason as to why the lawyer, her former and only girlfriend, one that she thought would walk down the aisle with her, could attain her personal phone number and texted her in such manner and in such a bizarre syntax. A part of the naval aviator’s mind began to pile up with doubts and worries, commanding her not to call the lawyer back. However, another part of Lieutenant Heath’s brain was filled with curiosity and hopeful thoughts, resulting in the naval aviator to be in a perturbed and conflicted state.

Ensuing a 15-minutes moment of contemplation, the arguments provided by the inquisitive section of her brain won and hence, Lieutenant Heath hastily dialled the once-unknown phone number, knowing that she would have changed her mind had she not call the number back as soon as possible. With every ring that she heard from the yet unanswered line, the tan-skinned lieutenant’s heartbeats quickened in an exponential rate because if they would talk through this call, it would have been the first time the two former lovers spoke to each other in over four long and excruciatingly painful years. After the third ring was sounded, the naval aviator was about to turn off the call and text the lawyer to call her back at the latter’s convenient time instead. Nonetheless, the naval officer apparently did not have to send such message as the curly-styled brunette lawyer eventually answered the call about a second after the third ring was heard. The call was picked up, but there were no sound being produced from either side of the call as neither one of them knew how to start the awkward conversation, one that would be even more disdainful for the broken couple after the naval aviator knew the purpose of the call.

The tan-skinned lieutenant braved herself to take the first step in opening the communication line with the love of her life as she inquired politely, “Um, hello, Christen. Are you there?”

After hearing a seemingly muffled sigh being let out, the naval aviator finally heard the lawyer’s reply, “Yeah, yeah, Tobin. I’m here. It’s nice hearing your voice again. How have you been doing there?”

“I’m good, I’m good. Just went back from a 9-months deployment in the USS George H.W. Bush with the gang. How about you? Are you still slandering people in court up there? Or are you now pushing papers and only looking at mountainous amount of thick documents filled with agreements and financial deals to read through?” Lieutenant Heath uttered out a short update on her life before questioning the lawyer in a light and joking tone.

Christen Press chuckled heartily at her ex-girlfriend’s queries before answering, “You do know that I’m not a criminal defence lawyer, right, Tobin Powell Heath? I manage to land the highly-coveted position as an associate in Morgan, Krieger LLP right after I graduated from college, so, yeah, my days are now filled with thousands of worded pages that I had to sort through meticulously so that I won’t miss a single detail that can place the company that I’m representing in huge trouble. Joke about it all you want, but as long as I got my dream job as a lawyer, I’m happy. As for your first question, I’m doing alright as well. Ali and I are in track to moving our bedrooms to our offices considering how busy we are with work,” inducing genuine laughter to arise from the former couple due to the brunette lawyer’s last sentence.

Nevertheless, when the series of laughs had finally died down, the phone call shifted into a rather perplexing and inconvenient situation yet again, another that had the naval aviator made the first step to salvage their conversation as she queried seriously, “Um, so what’s the emergency that had you texting me to call you at this absurd hour and where did you get this number from?” after letting out a rough and rather forced cough.

Not wanting to break the upsetting news to her ex-girlfriend just yet, the curly-styled brunette lawyer opted to answer the second question first, “I asked Ali whether she has your phone number but she said no, so I persuaded her to ask Ash for your phone number since my parents were adamant not to tell your number to me. But, please don’t be mad to Ash or Ali for telling me your number, especially Ash since she has no idea that Ali’s going to give your number to me.”

Lieutenant Heath exhaled a defeated sigh after hearing Christen’s final sentence as she knew that the latter realised that she would have plotted to murder her own best friend or even went as far as to commit the crime had the latter not said those words.

Noticing the hesitance to answer the first question, Lieutenant Heath resolved to reiterate the inquiry again, “Christen, I’m only going to ask you this question one more time, so please answer me. What is the emergency that had you going to those lengths to contact me? Are you going to tell me that you moved on from me and are marrying someone else?”

The brunette lawyer promptly denied the allegations thrown with the second question before giving herself a 10-seconds pause to gather her thoughts and replying the question hesitantly with another query of her own, “Can you take a leave and go back to Hillsboro right now, Tobin?”

The tan-skinned lieutenant was appalled by the question, but opted to hide it as she was immensely curious as to what caused her ex-girlfriend to request her to go to their hometown, a place in which the naval aviator vowed to never return to, hence she tried to answer the query in the flattest tone possible, “I don’t know whether I can or can’t, though, Christen. I mean I’m going to have a one week off considering as an end-of-deployment gift from my CO, but if I needed to stay there for a longer period of time, I need to ask permission CO first. Why are you asking me to go there, though? You know that after I had gotten out of that place, I promised to myself that I won’t return back there ever again.”

The brunette lawyer attempted to re-gather her words and thoughts before ultimately responding in her most sympathetic tone, “Your aunt suffered a heart attack when the town police arrested her for the suspected murder of her newest girlfriend, Glennon Doyle.”

Lieutenant Heath was extremely perplexed and bewildered after hearing the revelation as to the purpose of the call, one that caused her to almost drop her phone and go ballistic to destroy the contents of her house. The naval officer’s relationship with her aunt had been rather rocky and strained, to put it nicely, and one that was filled with the constant physical, verbal, and emotional abuse, especially when the blonde, middle-aged, former US District Judge was drunk or high due to drugs. The silence from the naval aviator’s side of the line instantaneously caused the brunette lawyer to be tremendously distressed as she came to a realisation that the naval aviator was most likely thrown into the traumatic bubble that her aunt created, one that the naval aviator silently lived in for eleven years, prompting to her to text the her former roommate and rally the Stanford graduate to make sure that the tan-skinned naval aviator’s condition was not too pitiful.

“Um, Tobin. Are you still there?” Christen questioned in a compassionate tone repeatedly until the naval aviator finally answered it merely with a hum, allowing the second-year associate in one of the biggest law firms in the world to re-query her previous question, “So, how soon can you go back to Hillsboro and how long can you stay there before having to return back?”

“With this kind of reason, the leave that I can take will most likely be longer than the usual, but I still need to confirm this with my CO, which I will do first thing in the morning tomorrow. As for when I can leave for Hillsboro, hopefully I can go by tomorrow evening or morning the day after,” Lieutenant Heath responded rather flatly as she was lost in her thoughts, one that she allowed to bombard her non-stop, for the umpteenth time that day.

“Okay, alright then,” Christen uttered before the words that she was about say was cut off by the sound of an opening door and a call from one of the former couple’s best friends who also worked in that firm as a third-year associate, Ali Blaire Krieger.

After having a short and whisper-volume conversation with the older lawyer, the brunette lawyer stated quickly, “Hey, Tobin. I have to go now, but we’ll meet again when we’re both back in Hillsboro. I’m truly sorry that the first conversation that we have after a long time of not communicating with each other had to be about your aunt. Hope it could’ve been under different circumstances. Good night. Don’t sleep too late.”

“Good night to you too, Christen,” the tan-skinned lieutenant said with hopelessness evident in her tone before the curly-styled brunette lawyer hung up the dreaded call.

Lieutenant Tobin Heath’s mind went blank once again for a split second before it started berating its owner for allowing herself to still care for her aunt and have the compassion to go back and rescue her sole living relative, despite everything the latter had done to her. She was immensely mad at herself and was about to punish herself for everything that she had and had not done when suddenly, three people, two naval aviators from the same squadron and a professional soccer player, barged inside her house using the spare key that one of the naval aviators kept, still wearing what seemed to be their sleeping outfits for the night.

When the tan-skinned lieutenant saw a certain naval aviator, someone that had been with her for almost her entire life and someone that had seen her in her worst moments, her walls instantaneously broke down and she knelt down lifelessly to the ground before wailing loudly and weeping in an overly despondent manner. The naval aviator, whose name is Lieutenant Kelley Maureen O’Hara and whose height was a tad shorter than the tan-skinned lieutenant, skin of fair white colour, face filled with freckles, eyes of the hazel colour, and hair of a semi-dark brown colour, ran hurriedly towards the kneeling and deeply saddened naval aviator, comforting her best friend by hugging the latter tightly and allowing the latter to cry on her shoulders, whilst the remaining two merely watched from the side, knowing better than to approach the emotional lieutenant straight on in her lowest moments.

The emotionally-heavy situation remained circulating for at least half an hour before the tan-skinned lieutenant’s tears finally ceased to stream and her body to be extremely weak, prompting the freckled lieutenant to command the other naval officer, a naval aviator named Ashlyn Michelle Harris, who had a chin-length, blonde-coloured hair, eyes of the hazel colour, skin that was filled with tattoos and of the colour white, and stature that’s taller and more muscular than her three best friends, to grab a glass of water and sent the professional soccer player, a Californian native who grew up in New York, played for and captained the LA Angels FC, had a pink-coloured and pixie hairstyle, eyes of the warm brown colour, and skin that was fair but with the presence of several tan lines, named Megan Anna Rapinoe to grab some protein bars and order the tan-skinned lieutenant’s favourite pizza to fill up the exhausted naval aviator’s with more energy.

Around half an hour later, the pizza finally came and the tan-skinned lieutenant, despite her reluctance to eat, was forced to consume at least half of the pizza box by Lieutenant O'Hara whilst the other two remained mum in their respective positions, still in the dark about the truth on what could cause the constantly calm, collected, and level-headed naval officer to have a sudden emotional breakdown. Lieutenant Heath’s three best friends watched over her carefully as her breaths started to even out and her face no longer exuded a dispirited expression.

“Christen called you, didn’t she?” the tan-skinned lieutenant whispered the question, making sure that only the freckled naval aviator was able to hear it.

“She texted me about five minutes before we barged inside your house, saying that she needs me to keep an eye on you, but she didn’t want to tell me the exact reason why. She said she’s not in the position to say anything to me about it and that’s how I know it must’ve been really serious. Those two were going to spend the night at my place, so when I rushed out of the house without saying a word, they immediately followed me,” Lieutenant O'Hara replied in a hushed tone, to which Lieutenant Heath merely replied with a weak nod and a short heave of sigh.

The two brunette naval aviators remained mum again after their short conversation, Lieutenant Heath calming herself down before she spoke up to clarify to her best friends on the circumstances that resulted her to be in this state whilst the other three house occupants were trying their best to not exude any signs that the tan-skinned lieutenant would presume as an act to get her to start talking.

After making sure that she was as ready as she could be at that moment, the tan-skinned naval aviator began, “I know that all of you, especially the two of you,” directing her attention towards where the blonde naval officer and the professional soccer player were sitting down, before continuing, “but I don’t think I’m in a condition to explain anything to you right now. I do, however, have an announcement to make. I’ll be leaving for Hillsboro as fast as I can due to a family matter. I’ll head towards Commander O’Reilly’s office the first thing in the morning tomorrow and request for a leave of absence for an unknown period of time, so I’m sorry but I will have to skip our surfing vacation that I know all of us have been excited about for the past nine months.”

“Wait, what do you mean you have to take care some family matters? Are Mommy and Mama Press alright?” Lieutenant O'Hara queried almost instantaneously in a worried tone as soon as she had heard the reason for the tan-skinned lieutenant’s leave.

“It’s not them, Kell. It’s my Aunt Abby,” Lieutenant Heath responded in a low-tone and diminishing volume voice, causing the freckled lieutenant to clench her fists tightly, ready to pounce the the most loathsome and diabolical person in her eyes, her best friend's deceased mother's younger sister, the former US District Judge Abby Wambach, wherever she might be located.

“What does that reprehensible and ungrateful troublemaker do this time?” Lieutenant O'Hara questioned in a low and angered tone, her fists still balled up until her knuckles became whiter than usual.

“She’s caught by the town police for allegedly murdering her newest girlfriend and when she was being transported downtown, she suffered a heart attack. She’s still unconscious as of now, but Mama P and the rest of the doctors there are monitoring her condition tightly,” Lieutenant Heath reported in a rather hopeless tone and an emotionless expression.

“Oh, if I were Mama, I would just let her die there and then. Besides, now that she’s in trouble, she expects you to come be there for her, even after everything that she had done to you?!” the freckled-faced lieutenant said in a raised tone as she jolted up from her seat beside her best friend, starting to be pissed off at her best friend.

“Aunt Abby doesn’t know that I know about her condition, Kell. I haven’t been in contact with her, much less talk to her, since the last time we saw each other seven years ago. However, all of her wrongdoings don’t diminish the fact that she’s still my aunt, Kell. The sole living person in this world that is of my flesh and blood and you know that I will never turn my back on my family when they need me the most. No matter what happened between us and how much I tried to hate her, I can’t, Kell, because deep down, I love her and I promise myself that I will always be there for her,” Lieutenant Tobin Heath stated in a slower pace.

Nonetheless, the tan-skinned naval aviator’s words didn’t seem to be able to calm the hot-headed and freckled-faced naval aviator down as the latter rebutted, “That’s bull, Tobs, and you know it! She disregarded her position as your aunt when she abused you and tossed you around like a toy. She left you hung out to dry and left you alone when you needed her the most, then why do you need to be there for her right now?”

“I don’t expect you to understand, Kell, because I know how much you abhor her for what she had done for me. I’ve learnt to forgive her, Kell, and I hope you can too,” Lieutenant Heath stated in her gentlest tone, nevertheless when she saw the stern and hardened countenance still grazing her best friend’s face, the former gave up in trying to convince her best friend that night, prompting her to let out a tired sigh.

“I’m really tired right now, so I’m going to head over to bed now because I’m going to have a long day ahead of me. All three of you are welcome to stay over if you want. You can each take a guest room for the night. If you two need any explanation about what Kell and I were just talking about, feel free to ask KO and she’ll answer every one of your questions. Good night, guys,” Lieutenant Heath continued to say her final words for the night in a lethargic tone before being assisted to walk to her own bedroom by Lieutenant Harris and Megan Rapinoe, leaving a disgruntled and irate Lieutenant Kelley O'Hara alone, sitting on the sofa in the living room.

Not having enough power to shower anymore, the tan-skinned lieutenant merely changed from her workout overalls into her pyjama, brushed her teeth, and washed her face before plopping down lifelessly atop her bed. Within a few seconds after crashing down the comfortable and soft mattress surface, she instantly drifted off into dreamland, momentarily forgetting about all of the problems that were just thrown along her path by her sole living relative’s actions.

The blonde lieutenant and pink-haired professional athlete peeped through the small opening of the master bedroom’s door as they observed Lieutenant Heath’s actions until she had fallen into deep sleep. After being assured that the latter was already resting peacefully, the two best friends, who had known each other since they were born due to their mothers being business partners of one of the largest professional services network companies in the world, Rapinoe & Harris, went back towards the living room, ready to interrogate the hazel-eyed naval aviator about her childhood best friend’s ordeals. When they saw Lieutenant O'Hara still being in the same foul mood as before, the two best friends opted not to pose any of the lingering questions that they had and chose to merely wait until the latter was ready to talk to them. However, that time didn’t came that night because the freckled-faced naval aviator merely went straight towards one of the house’s guest rooms to sleep, disregarding her two best friends’ presences, who also decided to head to bed soon after putting the leftovers inside the refrigerators and washing the dishes.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully you all like the story!! Don't forget to leave kudos or any comment about the story. I am open to comments on my writing style or which characters you want me to further elaborate. Stay happy and safe wherever you are. 🤙🤙


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